Friday, January 18, 2008

The Day After

I was told that even if I didn't feel pain right off after bonding, it would probably get worse the first night and especially the day after. So I - no pun intended - braced myself for the worst.

Guess what? No worst!

I really have had very little pain. I woke up this morning and couldn't even feel the braces until I thought about it. It got a little worse when I got up, but a couple Tylenol took care of that right away.

We all went to McDonald's for breakfast, and I ate pancakes and scrambled eggs and a hash brown (didn't tackle the sausage biscuit). I'm really losing all hope of losing weight because of these things. *sigh*

Lunch was the last slice of pizza from last night. At that point I could tell I hadn't taken any more painkillers since first thing in the morning, and I remedied that. But no biggie, really.

The worst soreness is at the points (upper and lower) where my molar buildups hit. Which makes sense, like the balls of your feet hurting in high-heeled shoes: all the pressure concentrated in a smaller area.

I'm learning to eat differently; how to chew without my molars meeting and doing a lot of mashing to the roof of my mouth. Also swallowing bigger chunks than usual. I'm slowly remembering to swish often with water - which has become a constant; I have a glass with every meal, no matter what else I'm drinking - to keep the food gomming to a minimum. The whole process takes longer and I get full sooner; if my food choices haven't changed much, at least I'll eat less at each meal.

I'm about to head to bed and still no real pain and no wax. Just the constant, dim ache that says "there's something going on here", especially in my front lowers (which are the most crowded). I seem to have adjusted to these braces very quickly. I'm not sure if it's the Damon brackets or just me...probably a little of both. Whatever reason, I'm glad of it.

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About me and my teeth

I'm a full-time medical physicist, a working mother of one, a wife, and a writer - all that you can gather from my "regular" profile. I'm also 26 years old and about to join the ~25% of orthodontic patients who are adults.

I've known I needed braces since I was 11 or 12. I vaguely remember having - and breaking - a retainer when I was in 3rd grade. I had a graft done in 6th grade to move tissue from the roof of my mouth and supplement the very low gumline on my lower incisors. I guess the next step after that was braces, but I refused.

My parents didn't have much money but they would have gone ahead with it if I had been willing. (My younger brothers later both had braces.) I think I was trying to save them the money - after all, my teeth weren't that bad, I thought. I also didn't want to mess with braces.

I made it through middle school and high school, marching band and prom, college and my wedding without braces, and I considered myself lucky. Then it became more of a stubbornness issue - I've made it this far! My teeth are fine!

A series of events over this past year, culminating in the extraction of all 4 wisdom teeth - the last barrier to braces - led me to a consult with an orthodontist. I was impressed enough with how far technology has progressed and what options I was given that after 14 years of delay I'm about to take the plunge.